One of the best blogs in the ACC again wonders why teams need 7 homes games (see first article).
Articles below touch on this, even a very specific quote from the FSU athletic department explaining why.
But this isn't the reason, FSU has explained over and over to the ACC.....the reality is, the ACC doesn't care. The ACC wants FSU to live by basketball school decisions, win national titles in football against the SEC (a conference that makes football decisions), bring home 80% of the money, and never complain about having to swim upstream with the ACC's BS.
Look at the past article posted on this site that showed the HUGE DISTANCE ACC schools are behind in budgets. This is one of MANY KEY reasons the ACC is horrible at football outside of 1-2 schools. Yet, the ACC consistently wants to go back to a key revenue source for football schools and take it away form them......and on top of that proclaim it really isn't needed anyway.
This is just one of many reasons the ACC will not last. The ACC does not want to compete in football, nor is it willing to let football schools set the conference up the way it needs to be for them to compete with the SEC. Lead, follow, or get out of the way.....the ACC refuses to do any of those.
A great summary below stated in bottom article:
"I get the small ACC schools want more FSU, but FSU does not want more ACC. We want to 7 home games, and we want SOS. 8 ACC conference games provides that perfect balance. "
FSU HAS to protect revenue (7 homes games) and SOS (more ACC does not equal better SOS).
ACC football tickets
Florida State - a lesson in economics:
This is actually useful information, as it shows the relative value of playing teams from different levels.
- FSU can charge $30 to play just about anybody.
- Tickets to see a "run-of-the-mill" ACC team is worth $45.
- Premium opponents like Notre Dame and Clemson are worth $100 per ticket.
Remember that the next time your team says they need 2 cupcakes so they can get 7 home games!"
Loss of games due to realignment costly
“Seven home games is something every business in town counts on, from hotels to restaurants,” he said. “People think it’s about the athletic department wanting to make more money, but we have a responsibility to area businesses who count on seven home games.”
Back to the FSU Exit Thing
"
Doak Campbell Stadium holds 82,300 spectators.
According to FSU, they sold out two games last year among their 7 home dates (OU: 84,392 and Miami: 82,322) and had an average attendance of 77,842. The OU game set the record for the largest crowd in the stadium’s history.
While TV contracts certainly bring in quite a bit of revenue, stadium gate receipts bring in a considerable amount, too. Let’s take a conservative estimate of FSU’s average ticket price: $20. At this price point, FSU should expect a per game gate receipt of $1.65Mand a yearly gate receipt across 7 home games of $11.52M. Using this price point for last year, FSU’s home gate receipt would be $10.9M. This represents $620K of lost opportunity revenue.
Their 2010 numbers were worse: 71,270 average attendance at $20 per ticket resulting in a yearly gate receipt of $9.98M and a lost opportunity revenue of$1.54M. Hmmmm…FSU is running a
$2M deficit and $620K plus $1.54M gets you just over $2M. SCIENCE!!!"
The Art of Scheduling at FSU
"Almost every BCS school at this point schedules 7 home games. The income generated by each home football game is over $1 million for FSU, based on ticket sales, concessions, and booster sales. With an athletic budget around $87 million per year, and the ACC only handing out a check for around $19 million, there is a lot of money to make up. (
See this 2010 report about operating/funding an elite football program)
FSU has to schedule that many home games and they can still end up in the red. The backbone of the budget is the Booster organization, which is very large and very dedicated. Without this, we wouldn't have an IPF, updates to the stadium, coaches salaries or a strong recruiting budget. Seminole Boosters helped fund
College Town, as a real estate investment to keep funds flowing in. College Football is now an industry all to itself. "
http://atlanticcoastconfidential.com/2014/01/11/acc-attendance-by-the-numbers/
"Too bad you failed to report on a crucial fact of this year’s FSU schedule. WVU pulled out of last year’s matchup, and forced FSU to scramble to replace them. That also factored into this year’s schedule. WVU was suppose to be on this year’s schedule, and FSU was suppose to be on the road at WVU. FSU for many reasons was not about to let WVU have a home game at Morgantown with no return, so FSU just pulled out all together. The problem is then you are trying to schedule a 2013 game with little wiggle room for 2014 due to ND, Okl St, and UF all non conference. So FSU wanted one non tough non conference game, like every other program has at least on easy non conference game. The problem is no big boy type team was going to play FSU at Doak (and FSU was not going to agree to travel without a home game in return) with no return. So either FSU agreed to do a home and home in 2013 and 2014, giving FSU 4 hard non conference teams in 2014 plus the ACC schedule, OR FSU had to bight the bullet and have another easy team at home. See, there is a logical reason for why Idaho was on the schedule. This is important, because you say there like a jerk taking shots at FSU trying to argue your insane point of 10 conference games.
The ACC is viewed as weak, and FSU needs room to schedule big boys (which it tried to do no thanks to WVU, which you failed to report on, and 2014 made it hard to adjust 2013’s schedule with another big boy as already explained,) So either you willfully ignored key facts in your story to push your ACC agenda on FSU, or you are lazy. I would think what I mentioned is more than relevant to this story, considering the points you raised. I get the small ACC schools want more FSU, but FSU does not want more ACC. We want to 7 home games, and we want SOS. 8 ACC conference games provides that perfect balance. 10 ACC games would mean FSU plays 10 ACC schools that the committee will laugh at (have you not seen all the comments SINCE the ACC went 2-0 in BCS bowls this years, no one cared, and no respects the ACC). You may not care about that, but FSU does care. It wants more titles and to make money at home. It wants to have a shot at the playoff if it has 1 loss, like every other big 5 conference school not in the ACC will get. Do a poll, and I bet over 70% of non-acc voters will say a 1 loss ACC team will be left out of the playoff. If the committee follows that logic, and you know they will, then FSU needs to watch out for itself instead of helping Duke fill its stadium. FSU when it can, wants to schedule better non conference, (I explained what happened already the last 2 years, thank you WVU – a team that was very good when the game was scheduled). FSU wants the better non conference so it can help strengthen the SOS. UF is no longer the team it was, and UM is s shell of itself. The days of FSU beating UF and UM, and winning the ACC as enough to finish top 4 is over, UNLESS another pair of teams aside from UF or UM are top 10 type teams, at least top 15, because UM and UF do not look to be those teams (especially UM, UF could be back if injuries are the only issue they have.)
Oh and I love how FSU wins the national title, carrying the ACC banner again, yet you have barely a mention of it (other than your overall bowl review). Yet you have time to blast FSU in this article to help push some anti-FSU article. You spend an entire article praising Clemson’s win over OSU. Got to love your slant. A friend of mine recommended your blog, because I was bitching that the ACC does not have a MrSEC type site, where it talks all things ACC and hopefully some fair takes on FSU. I have to say this is no MrSEC. It seems slanted, and does not report on some very important things. Not a good at all. Disappointed."
If you go by the numbers, Will Muschamp has recruited pretty well during his time at Florida.